Posts from the ‘Liturgi/bønn’ Category

Påsketiden 2022: Jeg er livets brød (1)

What you see on God’s altar, you’ve already observed during the night that has now ended. But you’ve heard nothing about just what it might be, or what it might mean, or what great thing it might be said to symbolize. For what you see is simply bread and a cup – this is the information your eyes report. But your faith demands far subtler insight: the bread is Christ’s body, the cup is Christ’s blood. Faith can grasp the fundamentals quickly, succinctly, yet it hungers for a fuller account of the matter. As the prophet says, «Unless you believe, you will not understand.» [Is. 7.9; Septuagint] So you can say to me, «You urged us to believe; now explain, so we can understand.» Read more

Fastetiden 2022: Ikke av brød alene (6)

By «the heart» (Ps 22,15) of Christ one understands sacred Scripture, which manifests the heart of Christ. For this heart was closed before the passion, because Scripture was dark; but [Scripture] is open after the passion, because the disciples now read it with understanding, and see how the prophecies are to be interpreted. 

(St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Psalm 22:15)

Fastetiden 2022: Ikke av brød alene (5)

Reading the holy Scriptures confers two benefits. It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man’s attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God.

Two kinds of study are called for here. We must first learn how the Scriptures are to be understood, and then see how to expound them with profit and in a manner worthy of them. A man must first be eager to understand what he is reading before he is fit to proclaim what he has learned.

The conscientious reader will be more concerned to carry out what he has read than merely to acquire knowledge of it. For it is less serious fault to be ignorant of an objective than it is to fail to carry out what we do know. In reading we aim at knowing, but we must put into practice what we have learned in our course of study.

No one can understand holy Scripture without constant reading, according to the words: Love her and she will exalt you. Embrace her and she will glorify you.

The more you devote yourself to a study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest.

(Fra den hellige Isidor av Sevillas sentenser)